Attention! There are two different words which mean “thank you” in Cantonese and they are used in totally different situations. 多謝do1ze6 is used when someone offers you a gift while 唔該m4goi1 is used when someone offers you a service or help. If you are not sure which one to use in particular circumstances, simply say “thank you” since it is also common in Cantonese conversation.

Hong Kong people code-mix a lot. By the term “code-mixing”, it means people use more than one language within one sentence during their conversation. People often replace Cantonese words or phrases by the corresponding English ones when they talk. So, don’t be surprised if you hear people speaking English when they greet!

Here are the counting of Cantonese numbers from 0 to 100. We would not include too many since it is difficult to learn them at once. Therefore, bit by bit, try to figure out how the Cantonese numbers are constituted.

0

零

ling4

1

一

jat1

2

二

ji6

3

三

saam1

4

四

sei3

5

五

ng5/m5

Nowadays, the strong nasal sound “ng” are widely displaced by “m”.

6

六

luk6

7

七

cat1

8

八

baat3

9

九

gau2

10

十

sap6

From 11-19, simply add 1-9 after 十sap6, the principle is the same for 20, 30, 40 etc.

11

十一

sap6jat1

12

十二

sap6ji6

13

十三

sap6saam1

14

十四

sap6sei3

15

十五

sap6m5

16

十六

sap6luk6

17

十七

sap6cat1

18

十八

sap6baat3

19

十九

sap6gau2

20

二十

ji6sap6

By 二十ji6sap6, it means ‘two ten’. Therefore, 30 will be spoken as ‘three ten’ and so forth.

30

三十

saam1sap6

40

四十

sei3sap6

50

五十

m5sap6

60

六十

luk6sap6

70

七十

cat1sap6

80

八十

baat3sap6

90

九十

gau2sap6

100

一百

jat1baak3

Too difficult and too boring looking at tables and words??? Click and hear them!0-1011-2030-100
Ready to count from 0 to 100 in Cantonese?? Let’s go!!!0-100